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Roaster of the month

October 22, 2020October 24, 2020
by What the Cup team

We often come across people who love coffee and want to embark upon this wonderful specialty coffee journey.

As tempting as it sounds it can be equally intimidating with all this overload of information like coffee varieties, elevation, process, brewing methods, etc.

With an aim to make it more approachable we are starting this series called ‘Roaster of the month’.

We will dedicate the time to know more about each roaster and their journey so far.

And if you are just starting your own specialty coffee journey to know that the expert was once a beginner! Do not get intimidated. Read more. Experiment more. Keep going.

As a bonus, we will be adding one sample with each order for you to experience their best.

Funnies & Anecdotes

Coffee Cantata

September 6, 2020September 6, 2020
by What the Cup team

In 1732, Sebastian Bach composed this comic opera about a coffee-crazy young woman whose father tries to come between her and her coffee.

This is how it goes:

The narrator tells the audience to quiet down and pay attention, before introducing Schlendrian and Lieschen.

Schlendrian sings in disgust of how his daughter refuses to listen to him, even after telling her 100,000 times.

Schlendrian asks his daughter again to stop drinking coffee, Lieschen defiantly tells her father to calm down.

Lieschen sings a love song to her coffee.

Schlendrian starts giving ultimatums to his daughter, threatening to take away her meals, clothes, and other pleasures. Lieschen doesn’t seem to care.

Schlendrian tries to figure out what his daughter’s weak spot is, so she absolutely couldn’t want to drink coffee again.

Schlendrian threatens to prevent his daughter from marrying if she fails to give up coffee, Lieschen has a sudden change of heart.

Lieschen thanks her father for offering to find her a husband, and vows to give up coffee if she can have a lover instead.

The narrator states that while Schlendrian goes out to find a husband for his daughter, Lieschen secretly tells potential suitors that they must let her drink her coffee if they care to marry her.

All three characters sing the moral of the story, “drinking coffee is natural”.

Feature

What the Cup on air

July 28, 2020September 6, 2020
by What the Cup team

We were on air this Sunday talking all about coffee and our wonderful partner roasters.

We spoke with Michelle and Courtney from ‘Drinks on us’ about how each roaster on What the Cup is making the difference to coffee supply chain. Ensuring fair trade and crop to cup traceability. How roasting is a craft and each one has a different roasting style giving us plethora of options to choose from.

Hope you caught us brewing on air!

Podcast link: Drinks on us (Starts at 19:55 mins)

Coffee

How elevation affects coffee?

June 18, 2020June 25, 2020
by What the Cup team

Have you noticed the elevation listed on your bag of beans? This may seem like extra information but the altitude at which the coffee grows has a direct impact on it’s size, shape and taste.

Beans that grow at higher elevation are more sought after as compared to the ones grown at lower elevation.

When the bean grows at a higher altitude it grows at a slower rate due to cooler temperature and less water retention. This gives it time to build a higher concentration of sugar. These beans are dense, hard and the flavor profile richer and aromatic.

Coffee grown above 1,200 masl (meters above sea level) will be considered high altitude and often has chocolate, vanilla, nutty and citrus notes.

While coffee grown above 1,500 masl is considered very high altitude. It will usually have fruit, spice and floral notes.

Some exceptions to this are Hawaiian Kona (250-750 masl) and some of the coffee grown in shaded areas.

Next time you buy coffee try the two grown at different elevations and see if you can figure out which one is HIGH 😉

Coffee

Single Origin vs Blends

June 10, 2020June 25, 2020
by What the Cup team

Specialty coffee is like wine, the more you understand it, the better it tastes
One very commonly talked about concept is the single origin vs blends. Let’s talk about single origin coffee and blends today.

Single-origin is the coffee produced by a single farm, mill or single group of farms from a small geographical area (co-ops).

Blend is simply mixing two or more types of coffee beans.
These could be from different countries like mixing Ethiopian and Colombian coffee or mixing different types of beans from the same region like blending north Colombian and south Colombian. Great blends can be deep and complex.

Single origins appear to be particularly popular because of their traceability but blends can also be equally traceable from cup to crop.

We’d love to hear which single origin or blend have you enjoyed recently? Let us know in the comments.

Coffee

Understanding Coffee Scores

June 10, 2020June 25, 2020
by What the Cup team

For a coffee bean to be classified as specialty coffee it has to score above 80 points on the SCA cupping score sheet. Think of it as one of those beauty pageants. Just replace the human beans (oops beings!) with these aromatic heavenly coffee beans.

These beans are now profiled and graded on fragrance/aroma, flavor, aftertaste, acidity, balance, body and overall.

Higher scores indicate better coffee from a cupping point of view.

We say it can be an indicator but NOT the verdict. Keep exploring the variety of beans and different brewing methods. Brew up!!

Coffee

Sustainable Coffee

June 10, 2020June 25, 2020
by What the Cup team

When we talk about specialty coffee the first thing that crosses our mind is sustainability and traceability. Today, let’s talk about sustainability in coffee parlance.

Here are 3 reasons why: People, Planet and Profit.

The farmers. The people who put in their sweat and blood to grow coffee. Wouldn’t you like them to get a fair share of what you pay for their coffee?

Sustainable farming practices are essential. Do you know that coffee plants are grown in tropics? That means unsustainable practices put our tropical forests in great danger.

Specialty Coffee is more expensive than regular coffee. If you peek under the hood and see how fair it is to the planet and the people producing it, it will be worth it

Coffee

What is Specialty Coffee

June 10, 2020June 25, 2020
by What the Cup team

Specialty Coffee isn’t everyone’s cup of coffee yet.

Great flavor, transparency from crop to cup, fair trade and sustainability make specialty coffee stand apart from regular coffee.

Take a pause to think of the quality of the beans and the efforts of the farmer behind your cuppa and you will say, yes please to Specialty Coffee!

Coffee

Coffee Roast types

June 10, 2020June 25, 2020
by What the Cup team

Light roasts

The less you roast coffee, the more you’ll be able to taste the true character of the bean’s origin. That’s why light roasts are known to bring out unique notes, such as citrus, floral, and earthy. Light roasts are sometimes unbalanced, meaning it doesn’t have equal parts body, acidity and fruitiness. This roast is perfect for those who love bold, unique flavors.

Medium roasts

Not sure where to start in your coffee journey? A medium roast is an excellent place to start. These roasts are often perfectly balanced, meaning it does have equal parts body, acidity, fruitiness. Medium roast beans are roasted enough to start the caramelization, without the burnt, chocolatey taste, while still revealing the origin flavors, such as citrus, berry, or fruit notes.

Dark roasts

Think of a dark roast to be the exact opposite of a light roast. By roasting the beans more, you lose the origin character, so don’t expect to be able to taste any citrus, berry, floral, or earthy notes. However, do expect dark, chocolatey richness! Just be on the lookout for too-burnt roasts, that is, unless that’s your preferred cup of joe.

Coffee

Types of coffee plants

February 6, 2020June 18, 2020
by What the Cup team

Arabica: For a classic cup of coffee. Originating from Ethiopia, it’s the original plant discovered and cultivated for coffee
- Bourbon:
  - Consider this one the cream of the crop of Arabica
  - It needs a lot of care and space, which allows for its high-quality taste
  - Flavour profile: deep, buttery chocolate, sweet, light fruit overtones
- Typica
  - These tall plants yield very little actual coffee, but are very high in quality
  - Think of typica as a sort of blueprint for a lot of today’s coffee varieties
  - Flavour profile: sweetness, clean taste, no frills attitude
- Caturra:
  - Discovered in Brazil from Bourbon cutting, it’s now used for wide-spread cultivation
  - If you’ve had Costa Rican coffee, this is likely the plant variety you would’ve had, as Central American countries almost entirely use Caturra
  - Flavour profile: sweet, fruity, smooth, well-balanced taste, slight cherry undertones
- Blue Mountain:
  - One of the most expensive, and for good reason: it’s one of the best coffee beans in the world
  - These coffee plants grows in rare parts of Jamaica’s Blue Mountains
  - Flavour profile: clean taste with virtually no bitterness, floral notes, sweet herbal and nutty overtones
- Catimor:
  - Developed in Portugal, Catimor is a hybrid of Arabica and Robusta plants
  - While it often gets a bad wrap for cup quality, varieties from Indonesia can be particularly delicious
  - Flavour profile: piquant herbal and fruit-rind
- Catuai:
  - Another hybrid coffee plant, Catuai is a cross Cross between Caturra and the hearty Mundo novo that’s found widespread through Latin America
  - While it’s a bit high maintenance, it produces a quality coffee
  - Flavour profile: varies from slight bitterness to sweet, caramel balanced with tropical fruit undertones depending on roast
- Maragogype (first found in Brazil)
  - Pacamara: Hybrid with Paca, the Pacamara is grown in Panama. It’s known for its lLarge size and, prize- winning aroma and taste. Its flavour profile includes: chocolate, butterscotch and honey notes
  - Geisha: A hybrid with Maragogype from Ethiopia, its revered by prized by connoisseurs seeking large beans and voluptuous flavour. Its flavour profile includes: intense floral notes and jasmine-like aroma
- Pache Comum
  - While it has come from Typica plants, it’s considered not as high quality
  - You’ll find pache comum growing in Guatemala
  - Flavour profile: smooth and relatively flat
- Timor
  - Yet another Hybrid, Timor has the great taste of Arabica with Robusta’s disease resistance
  - You’ll be not-so surprised to hear that it grows in Timor-Leste and was aptly named so
  - Flavour profile: deep, developed flavor and dark chocolate notes
Robusta
- Robusta has twice the caffeine content as Arabica but not it’s flavour and quality
- It has high disease resistance, making it a reliable coffee plant for harvesting
- Good robusta is comparable to low grade Arabica
Liberica:
- A much lesser-known variety to its Arabica and Robusta counterparts, liberica thrives in Southeast Asia with virtually zero appearance in North America retailers
- It is more similar to Robusta than Arabica

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